BENGALURU: 102-year-old freedomfighter, Herohalli Srinivasaiah Doreswamy sits by the window in his house in Jayanagar, and reminisces in a voice softened by age. “All the leaders had been arrested in 1942, Sardar Venkataramaiah and A G Ramachandra Rao went underground and they left me and my brother, who went to become the Mayor of Bangalore behind in charge of the movement here” he said. During which time he was in preventative detention for 14 months.
“At the time I was distributing time bombs(fire-cracker), we were so focused on disrupting Colonial rule that we tied a fire-cracker to a rat’s tail and freed it inside the Taluk office, so that all papers would be set on fire” he laughs.
Doreswamy in the loudest that he has spoken emphasized the idea that he and his fellow leaders were fighting for. “We fought for a country independent of violence, our India was like accepting and inviting towards everyone,” he said.
Yet, time and time again the freedom-fighter's idea of India is tested, “I questioned the nature of democracy when Indira Gandhi established a state of emergency, and I question the way that article 370 was repealed today,” he said. Clearing his throat, he explains that even if the article was repealed with the best intentions, the people of Kashmir must get a say in their future, “silencing people and forcing them to obey your will is very very far from a democracy,” he said.
“Our focus was our people and 73 years later, when we say our people must include everyone,” he said, in reference to the several incidents of mob-lynching that have occurred in the country. No one should feel like second-rate citizens. “What a fall, countrymen,” he exclaimed, “maybe the rich have freedom but so many others don’t even have a taste,” he concluded.